Hindu Festival of Thaipusam

MOHD RASFAN / AFP/Getty Images

Hindu devotees give away free food as they pray in front of Lord Muruga's chariot during the Thaipusam Hindu festival in Penang, northern Malaysia, outside Kuala Lumpur on January 16, 2013. The Hindu festival of Thaipusam, which commemorates the day when Goddess Pavarthi gave her son Lord Muruga an invincible lance with which he destroyed evil demons, is celebrated by some two million ethnic Indians in Malaysia and Singapore.

Hindu devotees give away free food as they pray in front of Lord Muruga's chariot during the Thaipusam Hindu festival in Penang, northern Malaysia, outside Kuala Lumpur on January 16, 2013. The Hindu festival of Thaipusam, which commemorates the day when Goddess Pavarthi gave her son Lord Muruga an invincible lance with which he destroyed evil demons, is celebrated by some two million ethnic Indians in Malaysia and Singapore. (MOHD RASFAN / AFP/Getty Images)

Hindu devotees give away free food as they pray in front of Lord Muruga's chariot during the Thaipusam Hindu festival in Penang, northern Malaysia, outside Kuala Lumpur on January 16, 2013. The Hindu festival of Thaipusam, which commemorates the day when Goddess Pavarthi gave her son Lord Muruga an invincible lance with which he destroyed evil demons, is celebrated by some two million ethnic Indians in Malaysia and Singapore.